


Paladin - Sick McGee

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1235]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 19:44:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18644845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: McGee is super sick. Vance is his knight in shining armor who takes care of him. Vance is pissed at Gibbs for McGee being sick. He takes things into his own hands to cheer up McGee.





	Paladin - Sick McGee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Duochanfan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duochanfan/gifts).



> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 09/17/2002 for the word [paladin](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2002/09/17/paladin).
> 
> paladin  
> [pal-uh-din]  
> noun  
> any one of the 12 legendary peers or knightly champions in attendance on Charlemagne.  
> any knightly or heroic champion.  
> any determined advocate or defender of a noble cause.
> 
> This is for prompt #2 of the September 2018 Five Prompts Challenge located [here](https://ncis-discuss.livejournal.com/149431.html).
> 
> I originally had another plan for this prompt that would have involved Tony and McGee, but I had a friend who wanted sick McGee and so I ended up with a McGee/Vance fic. Don't ask me how this happened. My muse is weird.

Tim groaned. His head hurt. In fact, his whole body ached.

He sniffled. Crap. Gibbs didn’t believe in sick days.

“You ok?”

Tim shook his head. “No,” he croaked, miserably.

His throat had that icky slimy feeling that would eventually result in coughing if he wasn’t careful. Not to mention the congestion that felt like it went all the way down to his soul. He really wasn’t well.

His partner ran a hand through the hair on the top of his head. “I think you have a fever. You better stay home.”

Tim shook his head. Stubbornly, moving as if to get out of bed. “Gibbs.”

”You leave Gibbs to me, Tim. You rest up.” Vance ordered.

Tim settled back into the bed with a harsh sigh. He really hadn’t wanted to move. He hated feeling like this.

Vance moved around the room getting dressed and ready for work. “I’ll bring you some soup for lunch and don’t worry about the kids. They can see themselves to school.”

Tim nodded thankfully, closing his eyes and attempting to go back to sleep. Before he could fall asleep, however, the coughing started. Great huge hacking coughs wracked his body. 

“Drink this, uncle Tim.” Kayla held out a mug of warm lemon tea. 

He slowly sat up, gingerly grabbing the mug out of Kayla’s hands. “Thanks, Kayla,” McGee murmured as he took a small sip feeling the warmth soothe his raw and aching throat.

“No problem. I got to hear daddy curse Agent Gibbs out. Something about daring to injure his precious elf.”

McGee tried to laugh, which mostly resulted in him coughing even more. “Is that so?”

“Yep.” Kayla smiled precociously before skipping off to finish getting ready for school.

Tim shook his head. Only Vance would take advantage of him being sick to play paladin. He’d known for a while that Vance hated how Gibbs treated him, but he hadn’t expected it to come to a head like this.

He just hoped that it didn’t backfire on him. He really did like being on Gibbs’ team, Gibbs’ beliefs about being sick not withstanding. He finished his lemon tea and set the cup on the nightstand before falling asleep with visions of Vance in armor challenging Gibbs to a jousting tournament dancing through his head.

McGee awoke to someone shaking his shoulder lightly. Tim blinked awake, his dream of Vance and Gibbs jousting still hanging heavy in his mind. When he realized it was Vance standing over him, he smiled, “Did you knock Gibbs off his horse?”

“Nah. Gibbs didn’t fight me over you taking a sick day.”

“Too bad.” McGee sighed, still remembering his dream and how stunning Vance had looked as a knight.

“Hey. What’s going through that head of yours?” Vance grabbed one of Tim’s hands and rubbed his thumb across the back of it reassuringly, mistakenly thinking that was a pained sigh.

“You look really hot as a paladin,” Tim mumbled rolling over.

Vance’s eyes twinkled in amusement, “Is that so? Well if you get better, perhaps I can fulfill that fantasy for you.”

McGee’s eyes shot wide open, “It’s not that kind of fantasy.” Dating Abby had kind of scarred him from role play in the bedroom, though he still enjoyed comic cons and renaissance fairs.

“Don’t worry. Kayla and Jared will love it.”

“Ok,” Tim whispered, his eyes going wide for a completely different reason now. 

Vance patted his hand as he stood up and left the room so that Tim could sleep. He headed to the kitchen to make some soup. He’d help Tim eat it before going back to work. 

He was still kind of pissed at Gibbs, blaming him for Tim’s illness, but he couldn’t stay away from his office for the whole day just because he didn’t want to see Gibbs for the rest of the day. The soup splashed across his hand as he stirred it a touch too vigorously in his frustration. He quickly dabbed it up with a paper towel and turned off the heat under the soup.

Dishing it into a bowl, he placed it on a plate and added some crackers to the side. “Tim?” He called softly as he carefully carried the soup up the stairs.

Tim roused, groggily, the previous conversation completely forgotten. His head felt fuzzy, his runny nose only adding to his misery as he wiped half heartedly at it with a kleenex. He just wanted sleep.

“I brought you some soup and then I’ll leave you to get some more rest.”

Tim nodded, sitting up in bed so that he could more easily eat the soup. They talked a bit as Tim ate. Until finally, Leon ran out of things to talk about and dropped a kiss on Tim’s forehead.

Gathering the dishes, Vance waved and offered as he left, “Sleep well. See you tonight.”

McGee woke as the door slammed open, signalling Leon’s return. He had to admit he felt better. His head didn’t hurt as much and the sore throat had also eased. 

His nose was stuffed up, but at least it wasn’t constantly running like it had been earlier. He considered getting out of bed to find out what had tweaked Leon’s tail, but even though he felt better he was still exhausted. He would wait for Vance to come to him.

He heard Kayla and Jared rush their dad and smiled slightly. He’d been accepted into this family and he was truly grateful for it. After Delilah left, he thought he’d missed out on the chance for a family, but he was wrong.

He could hear the clattering as the group moved his direction. He shuffled the pillows so that he was propped up against them and ready to greet them with a smile when they came in. 

“Are you feeling better?”

“A bit.”

Leon nodded. The kids clambered up onto the bed with their food while Vance carried his and Tim’s over. “Be careful kids. Remember what will happen tomorrow if you’re good.”

Kayla and Jared both nodded excitedly. McGee glanced between the three of them confused. “Tomorrow?”

Vance smiled secretively. “You’ll find out. It’s a surprise.”

If it were a couple years ago, that statement would have scared him. Now, he just raised an eyebrow and settled in to enjoy his dinner, letting the happy chatter from the kids wash over him. He felt no need to add anything.

The next day McGee woke at 4 am and frowned at the clock. He was still not feeling well and wanted to sleep. Unfortunately, he could already tell that sleep was not going to happen for a while. With a sigh, he sat up.

“What’s wrong?” Leon rumbled sleepily. 

“Nothing. I just can't sleep. Go back to sleep.”

Tim continued getting around, hopping in the shower hoping it would help him feel better. Leon watched him sleepily for a bit before falling back to sleep. He would have to get up soon, but not yet. 

He knew the kids would make sure that they both were awake for the surprise. Leon just hoped that Tim liked it and was feeling up to it. By the time, Tim got out of the shower Leon was fast asleep again.

Tim smiled slightly and headed downstairs to the family room. He flipped the TV on, turning the volume way down so as to not wake the other residents of the house. The sci-fi channel had a doctor who marathon going on and he settled in to watch.

A couple hours later Kayla joined him, followed swiftly by Jared. Tim yawned and put his arms around them both. 

“How long have you been up?”

“What time is it?” Tim used his hand to cover a new yawn. 

“7.”

“Almost 3 hours then.”

“Are you still feeling yucky?” Jared butted in.

“A bit.”

Kayla and Jared exchanged glances before Jared got up and left. Tim would have worried, but they were generally well behaved kids and he felt too terrible to investigate unless something broke.

Jared wasn't gone long. He returned carrying a mug of tea. “Here you go, Tim.”

“Thanks Jared. What's the occasion?”

“No reason. We just want you to feel better.”

“Ok. What going on?” Tim looked between the two suspiciously. While he appreciated being pampered as much as the next guy this really wasn't normal behavior.

Kayla and Jared exchanged glances again. 

“Uh. I think dad's calling.” Kayla announced and quickly left the room.

Jared stared after Kayla, stammering, “I think he's calling me too.”

Tim shook his head. They were clearly up to something, but he'd let Leon deal with it. He could hear Leon starting to stir now anyway. Tim laid his head against the back of the couch and nodded off a bit as doctor who continued to play in the background.

When he next woke, he found himself in the van with Leon and the kids. “What? How'd I get here?”

“I carried you.”

“Where are we going?”

“It's a surprise.”

“Yeah, Uncle Tim. You just rest up so you're ready for it.”

Tim sighed, wondering where they were going that he would need to be rested up for. He leaned against the window and stared out watching the scenery pass by. He didn’t figure out where they were going until he saw the sign for the Renaissance Faire as they pulled into the parking lot across from it.

McGee stared suspiciously at the entrance. He still wasn’t feeling well and a renaissance faire generally had a lot of walking he thought. "I’m not sure I’m ready for this.”

“Aw. Uncle Tim, we planned this just for you.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Leon gave Tim a look, “Look, d’you wanna do this or not? I promise you won’t regret it.”

Tim wasn’t sure he believed Vance, but they were already here. Worst that could happen is that they had to leave early. So Tim sighed and nodded, “Let’s do this.”

The surprise was really on Tim, though. He expected to wander the faire looking at trinkets to buy, but Leon led the way directly to a stage area where performers took turns entertaining the crowd. McGee, Kayla, and Jared all sat together and McGee thought Vance had too, but he was too lost in the performance to notice that Vance quickly got up and left. 

Of course, he immediately noticed when Leon the knight appeared on stage. Tim immediately glanced to the side where Leon had been sitting before glancing back at the stage as he realized it really was Vance up there. He couldn’t help the blush that spread across his face.

What was going on here? Was Leon actually trying to fulfill his fantasy when he couldn’t do anything about it? He did tell Vance it wasn’t that kind of fantasy, but he never expected this.

He especially didn’t expect to see Gibbs step onto the stage as a knight as well. Now, it was a true battle to see who was top boss. Tim’s money was on Leon, but he couldn’t wait to see how this really turned out.

They started with a sword fight that had the audience on the edge of their seat as they traded blows, neither man really gaining the upper hand. With some olden time special effects that made the audience groan, they switched to horseback jousting. The battle really grew fierce here.

The whole audience gasped as Gibbs got in a hit that had Leon tottering, but Vance managed to recover and got in his own hit. Gibbs didn’t even flinch. The audience oohed.

It was obvious most of them expected Gibbs to win, but McGee knew better. Vance had some tricks up his sleeve. Tim was positive about this. 

Gibbs got in a few more good hits, but none of them managed to fully unseat Leon. The entire audience was sitting on the edge of their seat including Kayla and Jared who were eagerly chanting daddy. The fight finally ended as Gibbs went flying off his horse due to a well placed jab from Vance.

The knights shook hands and left the stage allowing the next performers to take over. Vance joined his family. Kayla and Jared eagerly ran up to him and wrapped their arms around him in a tight hug. 

Tim was a little more reserved still not feeling well, but he was grinning from ear to ear. Vance grabbed Tim’s hand and led the family back to the car and home with no doubt in his mind that the trip was a success. Fulfilling Tim’s fantasy was a complete bonus.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has 21 stories already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least 21 stories before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> It's 2019 now and I have closed my 2018 Prompt collection, but fear not my 2019 Prompt Collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. Do not fear I have not forgotten about the 2018 prompts and will continue working through them. It's just easier for me to not get overwhelmed if I keep the prompts separated by the year they were given to me.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> I do not currently have a discord dedicated to my stories. If anyone would be interested in joining a group chat server that is focused on my stories please comment below. Also, if you would like such a thing what kind of things would you like to know about? Please share those with me.
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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